


A Different Path to Follow

by deltanz



Category: Highschool DxD (Anime)
Genre: F/M, Time Travel, destroyed timeline, op MC in later chapters, post Trihexa fight
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:02:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 23,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26023117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deltanz/pseuds/deltanz
Summary: Trihexa has escaped from the isolation field and is wreaking havoc in the human world once again. Even though Issei Hyoudou has done his best to defeat it, he isn't able to and is saved from death by Great Red, who after giving him the option, sends Issei back in time to prepare earlier in life for the battle against the beast. Time Travel story. OP Issei in later chapters.Cross posted from Fanfiction and also on scribblehub.
Relationships: Asia Argento/Hyoudou Issei, Fem Vali Lucifer/Issei Hyoudou, Hyoudou Issei/Katase, Hyoudou Issei/Ravel Phenex, Hyoudou Issei/Shidou Irina, Hyoudou Issei/Sona Sitri, Hyoudou Issei/Toujou Koneko, Murayama/Issei Hyoudou
Kudos: 27





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Welcome to my new story. This one was suggested to me by Raghav_Garg over in my personal discord server and I decided to give a whack at it though I can't promise anything about how good it might be. Couple things;
> 
> I do not own High School DxD or its characters.
> 
> Description: A year after the battle to seal him, Trihexa has broken free from the isolation barrier field that the Higher ups of the supernatural world setup and has wreaked havoc across the world once again and no one has been able to stop him. After everyone around that he knows and loves is killed Issei thought it was his end but Great Red pulled him out of there before he could be killed and they came up with a plan to stop this fate from happening. Follow along as Issei goes back in time to help save the world once again.
> 
> I don't know how often this story will be updated but I'll try and keep it up to date as much as I can while also doing my other stories.
> 
> With that onto the story.
> 
> "Hey everyone"- normal chatter.
> 
> 'wonder what's going on'- inner voice talking.
> 
> "[Let's do this partner]"- DDraig talking
> 
> '[what's happening now]'- DDraig thinking.
> 
> "Hello there."- Great Red speaking.
> 
> 'What now.'- Great Red thinking.
> 
> "Understood?"- important wording.
> 
> (Hello there)-A/N on stuff that might need some pretext

Laying down on his back, Issei tried to catch his breath as his adrenaline faded from the fight he'd just been in. Trihexa had broken out of the isolation barrier two weeks before and had wreaked havoc once again in the world and no one from the supernatural could tell if those that had been fighting it were still alive or not as they were not answering any calls from the line that had been setup for that purpose.

He had been fighting almost nonstop lately trying to stop the onslaught but he couldn't do anything about it and he had to watch all of his friends and loved ones fall and had been about to die himself and was waiting for it to happen when he was whisked away from the battle by none other than Great Red himself and while he was thankful for the save, he wasn't sure what to think about it.

 **"[Are you ok partner?]"** Asked DDraig as he himself tried to calm down from the fight, not too sure what to think about what had just happened, and was honestly expecting that his partner wouldn't be alive much longer and didn't know what would happen to him at the end of it.

"Yeah, somehow. I thought I was a goner myself there for a minute until Red showed up." He said before turning towards Great Red who he noticed he was on top of. "Thanks for the save there Red."

 **"It is not a problem Red Dragon Emperor. You may have lost the fight against the Apocalypse Beast and lost all of your friends and loved ones, but I have had this feeling all along of the fact that you would be the one to take care of the Beast and is why I stepped in to save you, even if you might have wanted to pass away to be with your loved ones again."** Great Red said, surprising Issei at his thought process and that he was the one that Red thought would be able to beat Trihexa.

"But how?! I'm not anywhere near the strength needed to take it down, even with the body that I got from you and Ophis Red, I just don't see a way to do it. No offense to you Red as I am thankful for the help back then."

 **"[Normally I would agree with you one hundred percent partner as where you are now there is no way you could beat Trihexa, but if I had to guess I think Red has an idea for that.]"** DDraig replied, figuring that Red would help Issei train to become stronger and possibly get better use out of his new body since right after it was given they had to leave the Gap and go into battle.

Though one could say that Ophis had helped train Issei since then, it's possible that there was something that he had gained from Reds body they didn't know about yet.

**"You're right that you aren't at the power needed to take Trihexa on right now and I have a guess as to what DDraig thinks I would do but what if I was able to send you back in time to where you could train from a younger age and be ready to take Trihexa on when its released or you might even be able to stop its release if you play your cards right."**

**"[Is there even such a power? If there is I've never heard of it though it wouldn't surprise me that you would know of a spell like it.]"** DDraig muttered though he couldn't say he was surprised that there was a spell out there for that sort of stuff. Whether or not it was a good idea or not was up for debate but he also didn't mind it if that's what his partner decided to do.

Issei though couldn't help but ask a question though. He didn't mind the idea but still. "If that's true, I would definitely do it to help stop something like this from happening again, but I have to ask, wouldn't there be repercussions if we were to travel back in time? If there's one thing I've learned in all my life, or at least heard enough times, is that time travel can cause issues between the universes or something like that."

**"To answer DDraig's question first, the Biblical God created this power eons ago from what I can only guess might have been an accident and while he knew that if it was ever used it might not end well like you said Issei, it might be best for others to know about the spell and how to cast it in case of situations like this one. Only the highest tier of deities know about the spell as well as both me and Ophis know of it too. In response to your point Issei, you're right it normally would but you have to take into consideration the state of this world right now. It's not like much of anything that isn't terrible hasn't happened already to worry about, though I do understand your concern."**

After thinking about it more, Issei couldn't fault Great Red for what he had said and was thankful for this gift, but knew he wasn't the only one that this affected. "I feel like this would be a good thing. Though I have to ask you DDraig, what's your thoughts on this? It's not just me that this affects after all since you're a part of me."

 **"[I agree with you partner and will back whatever decision you make. I don't mind the idea of going back in time and getting strong enough to handle this situation when it comes up.]"** DDraig said, happy with his decision and that Red had offered it.

"Then I will take up your offer Red. Thank you for everything you have done for me so far, though I do have one request of you after you send me back." Issei said, getting a look of confusion from Red as he listened. "Can you destroy this universe once you send me back? I don't want to run the risk of something happening that might affect us in the past." He finished. While he knew very little, close to nothing, of this subject, he knew that he didn't want to run the risk of something happening to them again.

Red couldn't help but admire the kid that had come so far since he had learned of the supernatural. **"I can do that for you as I agree. I will also send myself back in time to help you if you ever need it. Don't worry about how it will work out, it'll be a mental link like what you and DDraig have in a sense and it will work out since you have part of me as your body."** Red said, getting a nod from Issei as that made sense to him, thankful once again for the help. **"When do you want to be sent back to."**

"Honestly, surprise me on that as I don't have a good guess as to a timeframe. Once again, thank you for your help Red. I know I wouldn't have survived if you didn't pull me out, but I also know you didn't have to help me."

 **"You're a great kid who I've loved watching grow up this past year so it was no issue. But with that, I'll send you back before I destroy this universe. Expect to hear from me shortly."** He said, before activating the magic to send Issei back in time and once that was done, did as he promised and removed this universe from existence before making the time travel jump himself.


	2. Ch 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welcome to the next chapter. This one will dive more into what happens now that Issei has gone back in time and what might happen. Plus we'll start seeing how this story will be going away from canon in ways with this chapter.
> 
> With that onto the story.

As the blaring of his alarm clock went off for him to wake up, Issei blearily went to roll over to slap it off before he almost fell out of bed which woke him up in time to stop himself, which is also when he realized that he was in his old room before the house renovation. "What the heck? Why am I back as a kid?" He started before coming to a realization. "DDraig, you there? Please don't tell me that was all real and we're back in time." He said before having a massive headache hit him. 'What the hell was that?'

**'[Believe it buddy. All of that really happened and we've been sent back in time, and from what I can guess, about 11 years in the past.]'**

'So that wasn't all a dream? Damn it! I was hoping it was. But still, Eleven Years?! Why that far back? I would have thought he would send me closer to when I became a devil but I did say to surprise me as to when he sent me back so hopefully I can make the best of it. Anything else you can think of right now that I should know about before we hear from Red? He did say he would travel back himself to help us out.'

**'[Honestly, I don't have much to give you right now but a couple things. Don't forget that your body at a young age was not strong at all and all of your training to build up your strength, muscle, and stuff like that didn't transfer with us so we'll have to train you back up which might be one reason Red sent you back so far. Ascalon also came back with us to the past so that could be a bonus in case something happens, though while I would normally laugh at the thought, with you in your current state, I don't want to think about what Heaven will think of their sword is gone from this timeline since we have it.]'**

'I forgot about Ascalon and didn't think about it coming back with us. I wonder why it did and also I agree with you and we'll need to be careful if something comes up with the church side.'

 **'[Since it was a part of the Boosted Gear is why it came back with us, though I honestly don't know if there will be two of the swords or not with the travel.]'** DDraig said getting a nod from Issei as they heard another voice join their mental chat.

 **'Can you hear me Issei?'** Great Red said, joining the mental chat. He'd been waiting for a break in the chat between the two to hop in and give Issei some more information on what to expect with the time travel.

'Yeah I can Red. Thanks once again for helping me.'

 **'No problem. Like I said I've liked watching you grow since you joined the supernatural and knew that you would have been able to do great things if the world hadn't gone so downhill, though we can get back to that later. I mainly got ahold of you now to let you know a couple things that will come up with your time travel.'** He said before stopping Issei's next words as he knew what he was gonna say. **'No it isn't bad things but it is possible it could lead to it depending on what happens.'**

'Anything you can give me for things to keep an eye out for is a good thing for now. Lay it on me.'

'As DDraig said, all of the training you did as a Devil, strength, magic, all of that has gone out the door for now since you are back as a younger boy but you have a lot more time to build it back up and get stronger. You also do have Ascalon, though I don't think you have anything to worry about there from what I know about Michael. He might send people to try and find the sword but I don't think it will go any farther than that.'

'I can see what you mean and though I don't know Michael well myself I think I can agree with you there. Doesn't mean I can't worry about it though.'

**'I won't disagree with you there, but the biggest thing that will be different is that there will be people out there that have a chance of getting their own memories back. The sign that someone has remembered from what I understand is that the both of you will be hit with a massive headache.'**

'So if we go off the fact I got a headache right after I awoke earlier… it means someone remembered! Is there any way to know who it was?!'

 **'Not that I'm aware of until you come across them and they let you know, but there is one other thing to remember with this.'** Red said, getting a confused look from Issei. **'It's possible that enemies also will remember so it's something to keep in mind, especially with where the old world was when we time traveled.'**

Issei hadn't thought about it in that way but if someone that had caused issues in the future got their memories back in the past it could end up in disaster. 'I can see what you mean and so we'll need to keep that in mind anytime an unexplained headache might occur like when I woke up.'

**'[I agree partner as it is something to keep in mind for the future and who knows, it could help us gain strength sooner than if it was just us.]'**

'You're right DDraig so let's just hope that if any bad guys get their memories back, its one we dealt with early on or are ready to face them.' He said getting feelings of agreement from the two dragons. Noticing the time, he had one more question. 'Is there anything else we should deal with now? I believe my mom should be calling me to breakfast soon.'

**'I have nothing else to add that can't wait. Feel free to call me up anytime if you have any questions.'**

**'[None here.]'** DDraig said, getting a nod from Issei as his mother called him down for breakfast.

**Meanwhile**

**Sitri Mansion**

Sona Sitri had just gotten back to her room from breakfast when she noticed what looked like smoke was coming from one of her dresser drawers. Trying to remember what she had in there, she rushed over once she did and opened the drawer to see it coming from the bag holding her Evil Pieces.

Once she got the bag out of the drawer, she couldn't help but feel how hot it felt and quickly opened the bag onto her bed before all of her pieces started flying around her. Starting with the Queen Piece she was able to bring all of her pieces out of the air but when she got to her Pawns, they were glowing a dark blue color and sparks were coming off of them so she decided not to try and mess with them.

What she saw when she looked at her Pawns was that they were circling each other with what looked like lightning coming off of them and which as she watched the lightning linked each piece to another before four of the pieces turned a darker shade of blue from the original light blue that they were. Once that was done, they threw off sparks that landed nearby causing small fires around her room which caused Sona to come out of her shock and rush to put them out with her water magic as the Pawns fell to her bed after finishing whatever they were doing.

Once she got the fires out, she turned towards her Pawns and couldn't figure out what had happened past the fact four of them were a darker shade than normal and the whole lightning thing so she decided to go find her parents and let them know and also see about requesting Ajuka to check them out.

She couldn't help but notice though that as soon as she picked up the pieces, she could feel a strange warmth coming from them that she couldn't place as it wasn't connected to the lightning before, but felt more personal and protective.

**Meanwhile**

**Sixth Heaven**

Michael was working on paperwork in the Zebel of Sixth Heaven trying to get as much done as he could while he had some time when the door opened with a rush of air as one his aide came in out of breath. "Lord Michael, we may have a problem!"

Michael had never seen him act this way and wasn't sure what to think about it. "What's wrong David?"

"We just got word from the Master Armorer that the sword Ascalon has disappeared from the vault. He was getting a weird reading from inside the vault and when he went to check on it, Ascalon was shining bright and shaking before disappearing completely from the room."

Michael was both confused and annoyed at what that could mean. Ascalon was a holy dragon slaying sword that had been handed to the church by its first wielder Saint George after he defeated a dragon with it and ever since they had received the sword, no one was able to wield it including the Seraphs which none of them could understand why it wouldn't let them. That sword had all of a sudden vanished and Michael couldn't help but feel something weird was at play here.

"Is it possible that the sword has found its wielder? It's what the armorer suggested when he told me about what happened."

"Yes yes its possible it found its new owner but we won't be able to find out who it is until it gets used." Michael said agreeing with David as the door opened once more with his sister Gabriel this time, with a serious look on her normally calm and smiling face. "Michael, we need you in Seventh Heaven. Something is going on and maybe you can figure something out." She said shocking both Michael and David as Michael stood up to follow Gabriel out the door.

Michael couldn't help but wonder what was going on right now; first Ascalon disappeared and now something has happened to Seventh Heaven and it seemed like all of the Seraphs were there besides himself and Gabriel who had come to get him. What was going on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and that's the end of the chapter. That plot twist and and cliff-hanger though. Couple things.
> 
> I know these first couple chapters are short but I do plan on making chapters longer later, it just happens that these first few are short.
> 
> You'll have to wait until next chapter to see what happens in heaven but if anyone wants to guess at what the part with Sona might be about, feel free to dm me on here and I'll either let you know if you're close or not or what's going on if you want. The information will be split up over the next chapters about what it means so either way works with me.
> 
> Feel free to join my discord if you want to: invite code is zwJu3MZ


	3. Ch 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Welcome to the next chapter. We'll dive more into what happened in Seventh Heaven last chapter as well as see when exactly Red sent Issei back besides the eleven years currently known.
> 
> Thanks go out once again to Raghav_Garg on discord for his help on writing this story and also on the idea.
> 
> Not much to add here so onto the chapter.

**Seventh Heaven**

As Michael and Gabriel reached Seventh Heaven, he couldn't help but notice that the power coming from the Chair in the center of the floor was a lot higher than normal, enough to where even he could feel its power output was close to what some would consider smothering.

The 'chair' was the main control point for the System that the Biblical God had created eons ago when he had created the Angels and ever since Michael had taken over from his Father after his death, he was the only one that could control the system much to the other Seraphs annoyance sometimes but they also understood the reasoning behind it.

"There you are Michael. Maybe you can help us figure out what's going on here. One minute the System is fine and running normal and then the next it's power output started rising to where it is now." His brother Raphael said as they all made way for Michael to sit down at the chair.

"I do agree that it's weird of the System to act this way as I've never seen it push out so much power but what makes you think that something is going on?" Michael said, but before anyone could answer him, he got an unexpected response from the System. "Hold up. I'm getting something here."

" **{Anomaly detected in the System.}**

**{Unique presence detected on Earth.}**

**{Unknown but faint possibility of a God-Tier Angelic power level or Sacred Gear registered.}**

**{Find the Red Dragon Emperor. The answers you seek can be found in him.}"**

Michael could only lean back in the throne stunned at the words from the System. He had never before seen full sentences like this come from it though he and the other Seraphs had always thought it might have the ability to. They also had wondered what secrets their father might have left behind for someone to find or be activated at any given time.

Gabriel was the first to notice her brothers shocked expression come over his face as the other Seraphs were talking quietly amongst themselves trying to figure out what had happened. "Brother? What was it you found that has you stunned?" She asked, getting the attention of the rest of the Seraphs.

"We have an unknown presence that just popped up on Earth." He said, before telling them what was in the message. "Any thoughts?"

Raguel, the one that handled any security issues within Heaven stepped up and commented. While he was a calm man in most aspects, when it came to Heaven's security, he took it seriously. "This sounds to me like a new Sacred Gear has awakened as I've never heard of one that might be labeled as Godlike. But what would that have to do with a reference to the Boosted Gears wielder." He mentioned getting nods from everyone else before he had another thought. "Though that doesn't explain the first part of the message about someone with a high amount of Angelic power that isn't already known."

"That's true as their isn't a known Gear of that magnitude out there but it is possible something has happened where it was locked in the System until someone came around that could wield it to its highest potential. Or someone born from a Fallen and a human or even a Devil may have somehow gotten an untapped potential that the System was able to pick up?" Gabriel replied with her own thoughts and getting thoughtful nods from everyone as from what little they knew right now, it could be a logical explanation.

While Michael agreed with his sister, the thought about what had happened to Ascalon earlier and he couldn't get the feeling of the two being linked out of his mind. "While you may be right Gabriel there was another event that happened I learned right before you pulled me to this meeting." He said before explaining about the disappearance of Ascalon. "I can't get the feeling out of my mind that these two things are linked though I couldn't tell you how."

Sandalphon, one of the Ten Seraphs, and the one with the more laid-back demeanor, spoke up next with his own thoughts. "I agree that everything seems to point out that a new Sacred Gear has awoken or maybe someone has untapped powers like Gabriel said and I could see maybe Ascalon would go to them."

"I agree and can't argue against the fact that Ascalon going missing right as this happened makes a lot of sense that it would have gone to the Boosted Gears wielder but we won't know until we either find him or her or they activate the sword and its signature gives it away." Uriel, one of the Four Great Seraph said.

"Everyone here has had valid points, and this is something we should look more into without pushing our luck. Let's head down to Sixth Heaven and hash out how we will go about finding the Boosted Gears current wielder." Michael decided, getting nods from everyone else before they left the floor.

Unknown to any of them though was that one more message popped up after Michael left the chair.

" **{Requirements met.}**

**{Activating backup plan: Codename Gottheit.}"**

**Meanwhile**

**Kuoh. Hyoudou residence**

As Issei was eating breakfast, his mother asked him about his plans for the day. "Are you going to see Irina today? Don't forget they'll be moving soon to England."

'Oh Shit! I got sent back to this point in my life! Thankfully my mother reminded me as I might have forgotten about it.' He thought getting a comment from DDraig.

 **'[You're right partner, though maybe this time we can change things around where what happened in the last timeline doesn't happen again.]'** DDraig commented, before continuing his thought process before Issei could question what he meant.

' **[We know they had to leave since her fathers an exorcist and also that Irina will be trained to be one. One idea that might help us in the future, if nothing else at the Kokabiel fight, is what if we were to let him know you know about the supernatural. Who knows where that might lead us in this timeline as well as help down the line like I said.]'**

 **'It's not a bad idea if you ask me, though I think we should keep me out of the picture for now whenever it gets brought up until a situation calls for it. That way we don't risk something happening before we're ready for it.'** Red said, agreeing with DDraig on the idea as it was possible that Touji knowing could help them in some way or other down the line.

'It's worth a shot. We could even ask if he would let my parents know about the supernatural before they leave.' Issei thought, getting the feeling of agreement from the two dragons as Issei finished breakfast with his family, happy to see them alive once more after having lost them in the future timeline, before going and finishing getting dressed to play with Irina.

**Scene Skip**

As the two kids were playing, Issei couldn't help but once again be glad that he was once again able to see Irina since he had lost her in the previous timeline and it was fun to just have some fun, though he could also tell that she was sad about the upcoming time when she had to leave.

"Iri," Issei said, using his nickname for her to get her attention. "Don't be sad that we won't see each other after a few more days! I promise you we'll see each other again."

"But how can you be so sure about it?" Irina said, pouting as she knew she would miss days like this while in England.

"I don't know what it is exactly, but I've got this feeling that we will meet again and who knows, it may be soon." He said, thinking about his upcoming talk with her father as he couldn't predict how that would affect the timeline he knew on if they might meet sooner than in canon, as he walked up to her to both hug and kiss her to her shock. "That was for the kiss you gave me in my sleep. We'll be fine, I promise you. Pinky promise." He finished, sticking out his pinkie to seal the deal.

"H-how did you know about that? I was positive you were asleep."

"I was right before you did it but I somehow woke up right after you got up and was thinking of scaring you at first until you kissed me and then I was too stunned to do anything." He commented while rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. He actually wasn't awake at the time and heard about it later, but he couldn't exactly explain that right now.

"Mou, why'd you have to do that to me." She said hitting him in the chest lightly before giving him a hug and joining her pinky with his. "Fine, I'll trust you for now."

"Good then lets get back to playing some." He replied, kissing her once more before they got back to having fun.

**Scene Skip**

As they got back to Irina's house after playing, they would have normally split up but Issei said he needed to ask her father something real quick in private.

Once the two of them got in Touji's office, Touji asked what he wanted to talk about. "How can I help you Issei."

Steeling himself, not sure how this would go honestly, Issei got right to the point. "I honestly don't know how to do this so I figure I'll just get it out there now; I know about the supernatural." He said, stunning Touji as he wasn't expecting it.

"Well that certainly is surprising and not something I was expecting. How did you figure anything out."

"I can't explain much as I was sworn to secrecy for now, but I learned the other day that I am this generations Red Dragon Emperor." He said before calling out the Gear to prove his point. As Issei hadn't seen it yet since the travel, he got a quick glance at it and noticed it looked like the last time he'd seen it, just smaller to fit his child frame. "DDraig and me talked some after I awakened it and he mentioned that he thought he sensed a presence off of you that was supernatural in origin and so we decided to let you know before you left as who knows how that might help me in the future or me be able to help you."

Touji definitely was surprised at what he had just learned. Not only was his daughters best friend now aware of the supernatural, but he was the wielder of one of the strongest known Sacred Gears. "Well, color me surprised. I am thankful though you let me know as I know how much you mean to Irina as well as me and my wife." He said, laughing at how Issei blushed at that. "Is there anything I can do for you maybe before we leave."

Issei couldn't help but be thankful he had asked that. "If you would, I do have one request. Can you let my parents know about the supernatural? I feel like you would be able to do a better job than I would since I just recently learned about the supernatural but it feels like the right move to me."

Thinking about it for a minute, Touji couldn't think of anything wrong with the request. Issei's parents did know that he worked for the church but they didn't know anything, as far as he was aware, about the supernatural. "I can do that for you as it's a simple request." He said before the two of them finished hashing out what this might mean for Issei and his future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of this chapter. Couple things.
> 
> The scene between him and Irina hopefully turned out well as I wasn't too sure how to write it but we'll just have to see how it turns out for them in the future.
> 
> The Gottheit reference for those that don't know it, and for those that do, is to another story on FF named Gottheit and my rewritten version of it that is Angel based. I won't spoil anything for those that haven't read either the original or my version but there will be differences between that version and the one in this story. The name just fit within the plans that we have in mind for this story.
> 
> Next chapter we'll be diving back into what happened with Sona and get more information on what caused her pieces to react like they did.
> 
> If you want a calm and small discord community to join and talk about FF stories, you can join my discord: use the code zwJu3MZ to get in.
> 
> With that until next chapter.


	4. Ch 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Welcome to the next chapter. Not much to add here so onto the chapter.

The day after Issei met with Touji, he met with them to do as he was asked and let them know about the supernatural while the kids were out playing once again. Later that night at supper time, Issei and his parents talked about what Touji had told them earlier that day.

"I still can't believe what Touji told us earlier about there being more to the world than what we knew and believed," Gorou said as they were eating supper. "And he also mentioned that you had something that tied you to the supernatural world but wouldn't go any deeper as he felt that you should be the one to talk to us about it," he finished getting a nod from Issei who was thankful for that.

'DDraig, do you mind if we go ahead and let them meet you?'

**'[I don't see how it will hurt and don't mind it since they were fine with it in the previous timeline, which still surprises me if I'm being honest.]'**

Nodding internally, Issei went ahead and called upon the Boosted Gear to show it off to his parents and shocking them at its sudden appearance. "This is how I learned about the supernatural. I honestly don't know what caused it to awaken within me but it's here now and I don't plan on doing anything stupid with this power." He said knowing how his parents were. 'At least not yet.' He thought, getting chuckles from the dragons. After that, the family kept eating supper and just talking about the supernatural as well as whatever else was going on.

**Scene Skip**

**Kuoh Airport**

As the day finally arrived for the Shidous to leave for Europe, Issei and his parents were there to see them off with Issei and Irina getting one last hug in. "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll see each other at some point, though I will miss you." He said, getting a tight squeeze from Irina.

"Much as I hate this, at least our parents set us up with a way to keep in touch." She said pouting, though happy that they would be able to talk to each other long distance. Both of their parents had made them an email account that they could use to keep in touch with each other, knowing that it might help Irina in her training to become an exorcist if she had someone she could talk to outside of it and such since Touji had alerted Issei's parents why they had to leave and Issei had already mentioned he had had a feeling.

"You're right and please, whatever it is don't worry about messaging me and I'll be sure to message you back as much as I can." He said before letting go of the hug as he knew they had to leave before hugging Mrs. Shidou and shaking Touji's hand before they went into the gate to get on the plane.

**Scene Skip**

**Kuoh Park**

As Issei was walking around Kuoh trying to figure out a plan, he couldn't help but stop at the park where he and Irina played all the time, he happened to notice the old man nearby that was one of the reasons for his perverseness in the future timeline.

 **'[Please don't go back down that route this timeline Issei… I don't want to have to deal with that again.]'** DDraig said, but before Issei could comment, DDraig had one more thing to say. **'[Is it just me, or does that person look and feel like Azazel?]'**

Putting aside DDraig's comment about the future timeline as something to deal with later, Issei turned once more to the old man and noticed what DDraig was talking about. 'I think you're right. I'm not surprised I never realized it in the previous timeline, but I am glad that we realized it now.' He said and answered the unspoken point before DDraig could ask. 'If we can find a way to do it, we could have Azazel help us train our powers and maybe even learn more than he was able to teach us in the previous timeline.'

 **'[I think that might be a good idea too as right now we didn't really have an idea in place since you were spending your time with Irina which I can understand and don't blame you for. And who knows, he might be one of the people that will remember the future.]'** DDraig said knowing that the time his partner had been given with Irina had done them both good and knew it might help them in the long run.

Nodding his head, Issei went to move towards him when he heard a commotion nearby and when he turned towards it, he recognized two faces nearby that were being harassed by a group of boys. It was his two classmates Yui Katase and Kaori Murayama.

'DDraig, can you give me a couple boosts quietly so I can deal with these assholes? I know the two girls weren't really friendly to me in the previous timeline but I can't stand aside in times like this.' While he had his sights on talking to Azazel, this took higher priority in his mind.

 **'[It won't be much but I think it will be enough to handle these dudes from what I can tell.]'** DDraig agreed as he gave what few boosts he knew that Issei could handle at this young age and Issei snuck in behind the gang before he used the element of surprise to knock the one farthest in the back into the guys in front of him and knocked them all to the ground where once they untangled themselves from each other, got up and before anyone could say anything, Issei did for them.

"I know you're probably gonna say what the hell or something like that but I'll stop you now and just say I won't let anyone harass girls."

Once he said that the boys all surrounded him before trying to attack, but to Issei, it was all too slow and he was able to deal with them easily. Once he finished knocking them out, he turned towards the girls who had stepped back when the fight started. "Are you two ok?" He asked before noticing that there seemed to be some sort of recognition in the two's eyes.

"Issei? Is that you?" Kaori asked as the next thing they know, a massive headache hit all three.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: And that's the end of this chapter. That cliffhanger at the end though huh. Couple things.
> 
> I'm sure quite a few people won't like the park scene as it is but it was gonna end differently than this until I had an idea that would lead into the next chapter, with part of the idea coming from Tyrant Overlord Kilidia for adding them to the story.
> 
> Any fight scenes that will be done in this story will likely not be any good but any big ones will be better than the one in this chapter, just a heads up.
> 
> Just an FYI for everyone, as of writing this chapter I've not read any of the light novels past volume 25 so anything that happened in them will most likely not affect this story.
> 
> Feel free to join my discord if you want to by using the code zwJu3MZ to get in.


	5. Ch 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Welcome to the next chapter. We'll see what gave the two Kendoka their memories back and how Issei handles it. Nothing else to add here except the first part will be a flashback back to the future timeline so just a heads up.
> 
> Thanks go to Raghav_Garg on discord for both bringing the idea for this story to me, and helping me massive brainstorm it.

**Flashback**

**The Day Before Barrier Break**

Sitting in Yui's living room after school one day, both Kaori and Yui looked down at what they had gotten on their way home. " 'Your wish will be granted.' That's a weird thing for a flier to say." Kaori said as she looked at the one in her hands. "What do you think."

"I agree that its weird for a flier to say something like that, but I say we try it, and if nothing happens, we could always ask someone from the old ORC club," Yui said thinking about it for a moment and decided to try it out. "If we only use one of them now and something happens to it, we'll have another just in case." She finished, getting a thoughtful nod but as they were trying to figure out how to activate the flier, the one in Yui's hand activated and flew out of her hand getting a surprised gasp out of both of them, both at that it worked and at who popped out of the flier.

As Asia was teleporting into a new summons that had just come in, she wondered what to expect out of the new contractor. What she didn't expect to see when she could see again was two of her old High School classmates having fallen back in shock at the fact that the flier had worked as well as who had popped out of it. "Well, this is awkward I'm sure but I'm sure I can answer any questions the two of you have." She started awkwardly herself as she hadn't had a situation like this before, but knew that it always would be a possibility considering everything that goes on in Kuoh.

Once the two girls had calmed down some, the three sat down and started talking about what had just happened. "So let me make sure I understand correctly. For the past three years, most of the members of the old Occult Research club, as well as the Student Council during High School, had Devils in it and two of them were pretty much princesses for their families. Am I missing anything?" Yui asked stunned after hearing what all had been told to the two of them so far.

"There's a lot more that I could cover I'm sure but that's the basics out of the way yes."

Kaori though couldn't help but ask something that had caught her attention. "By that logic, Issei would also be a Devil correct? Was he always one? That could explain some of his more perverted sides." She said, thinking about what little she knew from books and such but Asia only chuckled and shook her head showing that Kaori was wrong.

"One might think that, but no. He became a devil not long before I did. Even though his perverted tendencies cause some interesting times, he's still one of the kindest people I know that will do anything for those he cares for." She said thinking back to all the things he'd done for her, before diving into some of it for the girls. "While I was originally a part of Rias's group, I was willingly transferred to Issei's when he had the chance to make his own."

Both girls were stunned at what they had just heard. "Wow… just wow. I don't know what to think honestly after what you just told us." Yui stated, getting a nod from Kaori and Asia could agree with them that this would be a massive change in their opinion.

"I can promise you that he's a different person when he needs to be but he is still someone that I have come to love and trust with my life," Asia said before the group sat back and continued talking about the supernatural.

**Flashback End**

As the headache went away, Issei couldn't help but wonder how the two girls would react and also why their memories came back in the first place. He didn't know about them having gotten fliers in the future timeline and knew about it in the little time they had them before the Beast broke free since it had happened the day before the break-out and Asia hadn't mentioned it to him yet.

As he went up to them to see how they were doing they fell to their knees as the shock hit them. "OK. I'm sure you have many questions for me and I'll try my best to answer them but are you two ok?" Issei asked, knowing it might sound callous but he wasn't sure how to handle this situation.

As Kaori came back from the massive headache she knew something was off, heck she realized almost instantly that she was back to being a kid and at the park by her house. "Issei? What the hell just happened to us? Why are we back in time?!" She asked as her mind tried to catch up to what was going on with Yui being the same way, but not being able to talk as her system tried to catch up.

"I will explain everything to the best of my abilities but this isn't the best place to do it. I don't know if you two will trust me due to our past, but we can go to my house and talk privately about this. I promise that nothing bad will happen to you if you might think that due to our, well, past I guess may be the right word here, but I want to talk to the two of you in private."

Kaori wanted to protest his words on instinct due to their past, but she also knew that something had seriously gone either wrong or this might be a nightmare, but she also took into consideration what the two of them had learned from Asia, so decided to take him up on his offer and after sending a look to Yui, saw she seemed to have the same idea so they both nodded and the three of them made their way to his house.

**Meanwhile**

As Azazel was sitting at the park reading a book for once instead of his normal magazines when he felt a minuscule but massive wave of power wash over him from nearby and it was a form of magic he had never felt before and didn't recognize.

Trying not to look too rushed as he looked up from his book, he was able to determine that it had come from 3 kids, two girls and a boy, that were just leaving the park. 'Interesting. I don't know what sort of power that was, but I know it's something that I need to keep an eye on.' He decided, knowing that if someone at the age of those kids from what he had to guess, he knew if it wasn't handled right it would end badly so he made a mental note to find out what information he could about them and go from there.

He also couldn't help but notice that he thought he could feel a Sacred Gear off the boy but it was very well hidden so he made sure to consider that as he made plans.

**Scene Skip**

As the three of them reached Issei's room, the two girls were surprised at how easily they were able to get in and not be questioned as all it took was Issei mentioning that it was something to do with the supernatural for them to leave the kids be. "Well, that went easier than I expected," Yui commented as she found a seat on the edge of his bed alongside Kaori while he took a seat at his desk after setting up a privacy barrier. "I didn't think that they would let us leave that easily."

"They know about the supernatural and that I'm a part of it so they might have figured it was something to do with it, or just decided to be nice for once." He commented distractedly as he finished setting up the barrier before he realized what he'd just said. "Well, I guess the cats out of the bag." He finished turning towards the girls as they both started chuckling. "What?"

"I guess you hadn't heard yet," Yui said as she calmed down. "We learned about the supernatural and who all is Devils from Asia not long before whatever happened to the future that caused us to go back in time."

Issei was stunned by that news, but now that he thought about it, he did remember hearing that Asia had a new contractor right before the Beast had broken free from the isolation barrier. Since it had happened the night before it broke free, he wasn't too surprised that he hadn't heard about it as everyone would have figured they had more time. "Now that you say that I do remember hearing that she had a new contract right before things went to shit." He said getting a pained expression on his face that the girls noticed, but he kept going before they could comment. "We'll come back to that as you knowing about the supernatural helps me out some. This might seem out of the blue, but how much do either of you know about the book of Revelations?"

"Not much honestly aside from what little I learned as a young girl."

"Well, just in case Asia hadn't been to tell you, but the Apocalyptic beast that was named 666 or Trihexa is real and was sealed in battle a year before you found out about us. The thing is the day after you found out, the Beast broke free from its imprisonment once again that we had been forced to put it in as we weren't strong enough to defeat it." He said before seeing the shocked faces coming from the two before he dived more into the first fight. Once that was done he got back to what happened right before he went back in time.

"When it broke free once more, we weren't able to do anything and I spent two weeks trying to do everything I could to defeat it but I wasn't able to and it killed all of our friends and my loved ones before I was whisked away by someone I can't say who due to a promise to keep their name a secret until the time is right, gave me the offer to send me back in time and grow stronger and one day be able to take down the Beast."

"Ok, I'm kind of with you so far, but what does that have to do with us regaining our old memories?" Yui asked, stunned at what they had learned so far.

"That's the one thing I'm not too sure on past that I did hear that people would have a chance to gain their memories back that were close to me or even enemies, but it would take a trigger of some sort for the memories to come back which I will know when it happens by the headache that hits me and the person that gets their memories back like you two did."

"That explains the headache we got and I think that if we hadn't already known about the supernatural this wouldn't have gone so easily," Yui said, getting nods from the other two as they thought about what all they had learned. "Do you have any plans on what to do now that you're in the past?"

"I plan on getting stronger as a whole to better deal with situations that I had issues with in the future timeline and honestly past that I've got a couple ideas, but nothing concrete." He said, before Red commented.

' **Why not have them help you train with a sword Issei? While they might not have started any training at this time of their life, with their memories back now they should be able to help you some with the basics at least.'**

'Not a bad idea, but we'll need to be careful and not use Ascalon since that might alert Heaven before we're ready.' Issei agreed though also had the thought, feeling that the dragons agreed with him, as he brought the idea up to the girls.

"If you are willing, would you two help me with sword training? I can't bring it out now but I have a sword I got as a gift from Heaven after the Peace treaty, which I can explain later if Asia didn't get to yet, and I need to be careful as I don't know how they'll react to me having it yet." He asked, getting a slow nod from the two.

"I'll help but only if you make sure to tone down your pervertedness this time around," Kaori said as she thought it might be a fun time, if nothing else, being able to beat him up some more.

"I can also agree with that, both of what Kaori said."

"Don't worry, that was already in the plans, as while it did help me out a lot in the last timeline, I know now how I should." He commented, getting relieved sighs from the girls and crying from DDraig as he heard it.

After that was done, the three of them talked a little more about what had happened in the previous timeline before the girls left for the day to get back home, not before they made sure to meet once again at the park the next day.

**Scene Skip**

After the girls left, Issei decided to go back to the park to see if he could catch Azazel there still and get that done too in one day. Thankfully it looked like he had just gotten back to the park right in time as Azazel was standing up to leave.

Waiting until he had mostly left and was out of sight of any other person, Issei stepped out of the bushes near him and held up his hand in a wave as while he knew Azazel was normally a calm man, he could also kill him in an instant if it wasn't handled right.

"Can I help you?" Azazel asked as he was surprised to see the boy back at the park as well as seemingly singling him out.

"I hope so, Azazel," Issei commented back, before catching a stunned look coming from him. "I mean no harm but I do know about the supernatural and just want to talk. I'll explain more once we get to a more excluded area, if you'll trust me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: and that's the chapter. Couple things.
> 
> Azazel and Issei finally meet at the ending and we'll dive more into how he'll fit into the story next chapter. We also saw what happened with the Kendo girls and how they were able to get their memories back.
> 
> We will be getting back to Sona soon, we just haven't had a good area for the next part of her to come in yet.
> 
> I do have a personal discord if anyone wants to join it: use the code zwJu3MZ to get in.


	6. Ch 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Welcome to the next chapter. This chapter will start the next arc in the story which I'll name at the end of this chapter to not give too much away. Nothing else to add here, so onto the chapter

Azazel wasn't sure what to think about the boy that had just popped up in front of him with no warning and wanted to chat. While he looked calm on the outside he also prepared to defend himself in case this was a distraction for something else. "Well, you'll have to give me more information than that if you want me to know you know more than my name."

Nodding his head, Issei could understand where Azazel was coming from as they didn't know each other in this timeline yet. Heck, no one in the supernatural world outside of Irina's father knew about him. "I can understand your concern. You're the Governor-General of the main faction of Fallen Angels as well as you know a ton about Sacred Gears and have also been looking into making Artificial Gears. I also have a Longinus level Sacred Gear but I don't feel safe showing it off here like I said out in the public. Oh and for the record, so I can have it out now, I'm Issei Hyoudou since I already know your name."

While Issei had been talking, Azazel was both listening to him as well as checking his surroundings and was surprised to hear what the boy was saying as well as that he could find no one else around so decided to humor the boy and see where it went. "Ok Issei, I'll play your game and see where this goes. We can talk at my office." He said, and once getting a nod in acceptance, opened a teleportation circle underneath them that lead to Grigori HQ.

**Scene Skip**

Once they got to his office, Issei sat down in one of the chairs in front of his desk while Azazel sat behind it. As Issei started talking, Azazel couldn't help but notice that he could feel what felt like multiple presences in his energy as well as something else he couldn't place that made the back of his mind tingle.

"I won't go into detail right now how I learned about the supernatural, I can say I just recently learned about it and my Sacred Gear which was enlightening as I learned a lot more about the world, especially when I learned just what Gear I had." He said, before bringing out the Boosted Gear as promised and shocking Azazel as he wasn't expecting that Gear as well as he now possibly had another issue on his hands.

'Well crap, if Vali felt that power, this could be interesting,' Azazel thought, thinking about his 'daughter' that he was taking care of after he had found her on the run from her family and who also happened to be the White Dragon Empress of this generation.

The one thing that he had realized early on was that she seemed to always want to battle someone and with them now finding her Gear's intended rival, it could go many different ways. "Well that definitely may cause some issues down the line but we can get back to that later. How far along are you in meeting DDraig?"

While Azazel was having his own thoughts on the matter, Issei remembered something he'd forgotten about when they decided to approach Azazel. 'DDraig, we might have an issue. I forgot about the fact that Vali was under Azazel's care from a young age so we might have to deal with him sooner rather than later.'

' **[Your right but this might also be a good thing if we can get on his good side early, we won't have to deal with fighting him at a later date and who knows what sort of training we might be able to do with his help.]'** DDraig commented, getting a thoughtful hum from Issei at that thought. Since they had been able to get over their differences in the previous timeline, he knew they should be able to do it once again, he just wasn't sure how it might go with them being a lot younger as he never really heard any stories from then.

Right as Issei went to answer Azazel's question, the door crashed open surprising Issei as he wasn't expecting anyone to barge in on them though after he thought about it a second, he realized it shouldn't be a surprise.

Though once he looked back at who barged in, he couldn't help but notice that her energy felt all too familiar. The girl who walked in had long wavy silver-white hair pulled back into a braid as well as bangs hanging over her face and just short enough not to block her eyes, and had light blue eyes that he could tell seemed to have a lot of knowledge behind them.

'DDraig, correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't her presence feel familiar? And now that I think about it she almost reminds me of what Vali might have looked like as a girl.'

' **[I have to agree with you partner, so if it isn't we both are wrong. I can also sense Albion on her so unless Vali was always a girl in the past timeline but we never noticed it, or something happened in this timeline to change him to a her, I can't tell you what's going on.]'** DDraig thought back, agreeing with his partner as he was as stunned as Issei on what he was sensing.

Red couldn't help but step in at this time as he knew what happened after looking into it himself when Issei went to Grigori. **'That's Vali alright and something did happen to him but I won't go into details due to what I saw and let them tell you if they get their memories back or depending on how you handle this situation.'** He commented but before Issei or DDraig could reply back, Vali spoke up.

"Azazel, where did that energy I just felt come from. Albion just let me know that he sensed his rival in here." But before Azazel could comment, Issei did it for him, just deciding to get it out of the way.

"That would be me. Issei Hyoudou at your service." He commented making her turn towards him as the Boosted Gear came out.

" **[It's been a while Albion.]"** DDraig said as the Gear materialized. **"[Seems like you might have a strong host there.]"**

" **{DDraig! Why are you running around with someone with low power levels!? Are you wanting to void our battle this time around?}"** Albion said shocked at what he could feel coming from Issei, but both Vali and Albion were confused when DDraig chuckled at his words.

" **[Normally I would agree with you but my host is holding a lot of his power back right now so it's no surprise you can't feel it.]"** He said out loud, but said to Issei in his head as he could feel his confusion. **'[Well, I'm hiding it for you for now but the point still stands.]'** Getting a nod of agreement from Issei at that.

Vali couldn't help but be excited by that response. "How about a fight than right now. 1v1 that's just a spar to see where we're both at." She asked getting a not surprised look from Azazel as he heard her request but wasn't sure how Issei would respond.

Issei knew that this would come up but also knew that it was too early. "I don't want to fight you, not yet at least but I can promise I will spar with you at some point as I just met with Azazel today so who knows what might happen in the future." He said getting a nod from Azazel and when it looked like Vali might disagree, he commented once more to her happiness. "How about instead of that, we go somewhere where I can show off some of my power."

Azazel couldn't disagree with that as it would hopefully sate some of Vali's interest as well as he was curious. "I wouldn't mind as like you said we just met so I don't know much about your power either." Which after getting nods from the two, they stepped out of his office and headed towards a training room.

'DDraig, any ideas on what to do here that might wow them? I know we can just release my power which I would think should be pretty high even at my age but do we have any more things to do?'

 **'[While I wouldn't normally suggest this, we do have access to your Balance Breaker but only for just under a minute before I would have to shut it down so we could go that route.]'** He suggested much to Issei's shock but he decided to go that route and worry about it later.

'I'll let you do the job of activating it to try and stop any issues from popping up for now.' He said, getting a nod from DDraig as he didn't disagree.

**Scene Skip**

As they reached the training room, Issei went to the center of the room with the other two off to the side, he turned towards Vali. "I likely should have asked this earlier but didn't get the chance to. As I already introduced myself, can I get your name as well? Seems only fair."

While Vali didn't like the last name she was born with, she couldn't disagree with what he was saying. "I don't go by a last name but you can call me Valiana or Vali. Either one works."

Nodding, Issei felt better now so he didn't mess up any time soon accidentally. 'At least her name is still the same and she even is going by what her female name would be.' Out loud he commented. "Thank you. Now to get on with showing off some of my power to you," he commented before passing the reigns to DDraig as well as calling out the Boosted Gear. **"[Welsh Dragon, Balance Breaker!]"** Was called out before a bright flash of red blinded both Azazel and Vali.

As Issei saw the bright flash disappear, he couldn't help but notice how shocked the other two in the room looked at how he already had Balance Breaker unlocked, and by the expression on Vali's face, he guessed that she didn't have it unlocked yet on her end. "I can't keep this form long but I also just learned as I asked DDraig what we could do walking over here as he knows more about where my power is right now he suggested this." He commented getting no response from the two before DDraig went ahead and canceled Balance Breaker so there weren't any undue risks.

Azazel though couldn't help but notice that when the Balance Breaker went up, he could also feel two other presences in the background that most would likely not have sensed; the primal power of two other dragons that are even higher than DDraig in power, Ophis and what he was highly suspicious of being coming from the other Dragon God Great Red.

**Scene Skip**

After that scene, the three of them went back to Azazel's office so they could continue their talk after he showed off his power. "So if we go off of what Issei said right before that show Red Dragon, you know more about how he got this powerful than he does?" Azazel asked as he was curious. He'd never heard of anyone this young already having the Balance Breaker form but he always knew there would be chances of this happening. "And why did I sense who I'm pretty sure was Ophis and what I thought might be Great Red in the power behind the Balance Breaker.

 **"[Just call me DDraig, and yes, I do know more about it than Issei does as the power released when it happened knocked him unconscious, and while I had hoped you wouldn't sense that part, I can easily explain it too.]"** DDraig said sighing, as he dived into the story him and Red had concocted together while Issei was sleeping.

" **[I'm honestly not too sure myself how the powers of the two Dragon Gods came to be inside my current host but they have allowed him the ability to adapt a lot sooner than most of my hosts at this age and he has, as you could tell, already gained my Balance Breaker thanks to their interference in what only I can guess was either blind luck, or something with when he was born made them decide to give this boy their strength for the road ahead, whatever that might entail. With those two it's never easy to know what they might be thinking.]"**

Issei though couldn't help but wonder when DDraig had come up with that idea and which his partner was ready to answer. **'[Me and Red talked about it as we knew at some point it might be found out and came up with this idea one night when you were sleeping.]'** He commented, getting an 'Oh…' from Issei at that.

After that little bit of information, the three of them sat back to talk more about Issei and his powers as well as anything else that he might require being answered.

**Meanwhile**

On the outer edge of Kuoh, a black magic circle that had the design of snakes all around it in an infinity signal popped up and out of the circle came Ophis, but not the one from this timeline.

After Red had sent Issei back in time, he'd actually run into her right before he himself time traveled, and there she had learned about the plans Red and Issei had made to travel back in time and try to stop the destruction of their universe, but at the time, Ophis decided not to do anything and stay in the previous timeline as she saw no reason to help them in their quest as she finally could have peace and quiet like she had been hoping for.

But now something had changed and she had decided to travel back in time herself and watch from the sidelines until the time was right to meet him once again.

**Meanwhile**

**Fast Forward 1 Month**

**Sitri Mansion**

Sona and her parents were sitting down in one of the meeting rooms in the Sitri mansion while Ajuka sat across from them as he had finally finished looking over her Pawns.

"What did you find out Ajuka? I hope it wasn't anything too major." Revan, Sona's father, asked, having instantly contacted Ajuka through Serafall once they learned what had happened, though it took a month before they had heard back from him and he wasn't sure what to think.

"From what I was able to determine, I do have mostly good news, but maybe some bad too depending on how you take it." He said, getting confused looks from everyone else. "To start, the four Pawns that turned a darker shade of blue than the original have actually turned into Mutation Pieces, and from what I can determine that's what caused the lightning." He said before Sona stood up shocked at what happened.

"Mutation pieces? But how did that happen? I thought that would only happen when you receive them or if they are in someone already."

Nodding his head at her words, Ajuka continued. "You would normally be right as those are the only times I've ever seen, but in this case, it did happen and that leads to my next point. From what I've been able to determine, the pieces have been claimed." He said and before anyone could step in with anything else to say, he continued. "I tried to use them on an animal to see if I could and not even me as the creator could use them."

"What does this mean? I get what you mean about the pieces being already claimed but nothing else." Ariel, Sona's mom, asked.

"Well, whoever has 'claimed' the pieces must be powerful for him to require all eight pieces, and I have an idea on that that I'll come back to in a minute, but for four pieces to mutate at once makes me even more sure that they will be a powerful asset when you find them." He said getting another look of shock from everyone as Sona asked another question.

"You said you have an idea on who it might be?"

"Yes. At one point when I was holding the pieces, I had a vision where I was able to see someone in red armor which after searching for images that matched it, I was able to determine that whoever is your Pawn will be the latest generation of the Red Dragon Emperor. That explains all eight pieces but whatever happened to cause four to mutate, I can't even begin to guess at this moment." Causing Sona's parent's eye's to widen as they realized how big of a deal this was and a confused look from Sona as she didn't recognize the name, which turned to shock once her mother realized that and explained it to her.

Revan came back to his senses the quickest and had one more question for Ajuka. "Well, that's honestly surprising that we would have the Red Dragon Emperor as a part of my daughter's peerage, as well as the boost that we might have at having him or her on the Devils side. Do you have any ideas on who it might be at this moment?"

"Not a clue and that is also one of the things that was keeping me from having this meeting sooner is I wanted to look into if I could find the Emperor and at least get eyes on him or her but I couldn't find anything on the latest generation. I do plan on keeping an eye out for them as well as have put out some feelers and will let you know if I find anything." He said before catching the looks coming from Revan and his wife and stepping in before they could say anything.

"Please, don't think anything about me helping out in this situation as it's something I'm curious about myself since I have never seen anything like this before and we all know how Serafall will handle this," he said getting nods from everyone else as they thought about the one Sitri member that wasn't there as they knew how she was. All it took somehow was that Ajuka promised to keep her up to date the instant he found anything out.

With that out of the way, the group settled back and talked more about how to find the Red Dragon Emperor and what it might entail with them in Sona's peerage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: And that's the end of the chapter. Few things to go over.
> 
> Since there is no official word on what Sona's parent's names are, we decided to go with Revan and Arial for this story. No reason why just what names were chosen.
> 
> As I said up top, this chapter starts a new arc that we'll be calling the Grigori arc as it mostly revolves around Issei's time training at Grigori among other things.
> 
> The Sona scene did skip forward a month as that was our original plan for that next scene so right now I don't know how the first bit of next chapter will go, either be a flashback or what so just a heads up since there won't be much of a skip between the last scene from Issei's perspective and Sona's normally.
> 
> I'll be posting a picture soon of what Vali will be looking like in this story in my discord in the channel dedicated to this story so go and check it out at some point. The photo will be more of what Vali will look like in later years but it will give at least an idea.
> 
> Feel free to join my discord if you want: use the code zwJu3MZ to get in.
> 
> With that, until the next chapter where we'll see some action come into play as well as something else I don't want to spoil.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Welcome to the next chapter. Nothing to add here so let's get onto the chapter.

Six months after meeting Vali and Azazel, Issei was seen in a friendly sparring match with Azazel with Vali watching from nearby.

Not long after meeting the two, Issei had talked with his parents into letting him train with Azazel in his supernatural powers and had come up with the story of Ddraig had a contact that could get him in touch with Azazel for training purposes thanks to a favor that he owed one of the previous hosts of the Boosted Gear, which was an interesting idea to Azazel and he agreed to the plan on getting his parents approval. They didn't mind the idea as long as Issei was allowed to come home at least once a week or on the weekends and so Issei moved out to Grigori for training.

During the last sixth months, Issei had been training to get his strength up once again and had been able to handle his Balance Breaker for up to two days, which was a major shock to Azazel that the boy was showing such an improvement at his age.

He was able to use dragon shot once more and had even been able to get some basic sword training in from Azazel and the Kendo girls that he could put to use in the future. He couldn't help but thank whoever would listen that Azazel didn't try and figure out too hard what sword he had as he still wasn't ready to risk showing Ascalon and alerting Heaven.

With the Kendo girls, he'd been on and off training with them and all three of them had gotten better at sword work than they were before they started since the two girls hadn't gotten into Kendo yet too much by this time in their lives. He also had been teaching them more about the supernatural and what all he had gone through in the previous timeline and they were stunned at what all went on behind the scenes at the school.

Vali still didn't have access to her Balance Breaker but she was well on her way to gaining it and was slowly working her way to winning more fights against Issei though he was mostly able to win any spars they had due to his better knowledge of his powers as well as Albion's.

Right as Issei was fighting Azazel, he also couldn't help but feel in the back of his mind that something was different today but couldn't place what it was until DDraig chimed in letting him know what he was feeling.

 **'[I'd been looking for a good opportunity to point this out to you partner, but I got a surprise for you that could honestly go either way.]'** DDraig commented, getting a confused look from Issei and a pause in the spar, which thankfully Azazel noticed and stopped what he was doing as he wanted to see what might happen next.

' **[Even without you having your Pawn pieces back, it seems like we have access to both Triania and Crimson Promotion but for a limited time, just like when we first showed off your Balance Breaker. If I'm being honest I don't know how much time you would have in the forms but I say we give it a try, and who knows, it might trigger one or both of their memories seeing the form.]'** He finished, getting a thoughtful nod from Issei at that.

'Screw it, let's go for Crimson Promotion. That one can be more easily explained than the Triania if it comes to it in my opinion as an unknown form that the chant came to my head.' Issei said agreeing with DDraig as he flew down to the ground and prepared to start the chant.

Azazel meanwhile was watching with interest on what Issei was going to do. He'd been astounded at the potential that the boy had at such a young age and was always excited to see what might happen in these spars, as sparse as they were, and what else Issei might conjure up.

He also was silently happy on the fact that Issei seemed to be able to get Vali out of her shell some and away from some of her fascination with battles. What he wasn't expecting was for Issei to start chanting some chant and hoped that it wasn't what he thought it might be.

**I who is about to awaken.**

**Am the Red Dragon Emperor who has discarded the principles of domination.**

**I shall walk the road of righteousness by having infinite hopes and dreams**

**I shall become the King of Crimson Dragon**

**And I promise you all! I shall show you the future which shines in true crimson light!**

**Cardinal Crimson Full Drive!**

Right after the final chant, a bright red flash blinded both Azazel and Vali and as the light dimmed, they were both surprised at the sight of Issei in his Cardinal Crimson armor, the likes of which neither of them had seen before with Azazel taking quite a lot of interest in the form. It looked to him like an upgraded form of the regular Balance Breaker and had a much darker red color than the normal form. He had also never heard of the chant used before but it sounded like a different form of the Juggernaut Drive chant he had read up on when he found Vali as well as his own research.

Vali wasn't too sure what to think about the new armor that Issei had just shown them and couldn't help but be excited over the feeling of the armor but she couldn't tell why it got her that way.

'DDraig, how long do you think I have in this form? I doubt I can hold it long if what has happened in the past is anything to go by.' Issei asked, getting ready to activate the Fang Blast Booster attack against Azazel, pretty sure he'd be able to handle the attack easily. With his untrained body in the Crimson armor, he didn't think he'd be able to put much force into the attack.

 **'[That's a good question and one I honestly don't have an answer to right now as I only just recently discovered you could use this form again, though it seems to be some sort of empty form of the normal form since you don't have your Pawns in you yet. Past that I can't give a good explanation until we look into it more. Though to answer your question, I don't think you can handle it for more than five minutes and I'm sure that if you use the cannons, that timer will end instantly afterward.]'** Ddraig commented his thoughts and getting a thoughtful hum from Issei as he could understand what Ddraig was talking about. What Issei hadn't noticed as he talked to Ddraig was that Azazel looked like he might shit himself as he felt the power behind the cannons.

Azazel was about to shit himself after he felt the power that could come out of the cannons on the back of Issei's armor as he wasn't sure how much damage they would cause. Even if he were to survive the attack, he thought that it'd for sure to do damage to Grigori and he didn't know how much at that so he prepared to throw his own attack to hopefully cancel out the attack or at least diminish it some. Azazel also noticed a nagging in the back of his mind at something but he pushed it away with the current issue.

The same thing was happening to Vali as Albion was yelling at her that they had to be prepared for whatever was coming and erect as strong a barrier as she could and she did exactly that, having never heard Albion sound so nervous in the small time she had known him.

At this time, Issei had finally come out of his inner thoughts and realized what Azazel was getting ready to do and his fight or flight instincts kicked in automatically and activated the Dividing Wyvern Fairy's in his armor to help survive the attack thinking it was coming for him instead of to take care of his attack.

Right as that happened, Issei's attack released and Azazel did the same while the Wyverns moved in to tank the attack, Issei all of a sudden felt a massive headache hit him once again causing him to lose focus and end his attack right as the same thing happened to Azazel and his attack as the headache hit as well as he could vaguely hear what sounded like a grunt from Vali nearby as she had the same thing happen to her. Thankfully with the loss of Issei and Azazel's concentration, their attacks disappeared and they both were safe from the attacks. As soon as Issei was able to he moved down to the ground level as he realized what must have happened and wasn't sure how it would go this time around since they had been a part of the supernatural in the previous timeline, unlike the Kendo girls who only had learned about the supernatural right before Trihexa broke free.

**Meanwhile  
Sona Sitri POV**

Sona had been sitting with her parents watching a Rating Game going on when she suddenly felt the pouch she kept with her at all times now with her Pawn pieces start shaking and warming up once again. Standing up to get the pouch out of her pocket, the action immediately catching the attention of her parents who realized something was happening once more to their daughter's pieces.

Finally getting them out of her pocket, she dumped them out onto a nearby table and saw that they seemed to be glowing a bright blue once more and were shaking but there wasn't any lightning this time around. "Now what's going on with them I wonder." She thought out loud as the pieces calmed down once more and went back to their normal color of blue.

"They haven't done anything in over six months so I wonder what caused them to react this time." Her mother agreed watching as Sona put the pieces back in her pouch since it seemed like they were done with whatever they were going to do and her husband called Ajuka with the latest news as he had requested to be notified as soon as possible when something happened.

When Sona picked back up the Pawns, she suddenly felt like a link was opened in her mind, sending new emotions into her brain that she recognized as coming from someone else and wasn't sure what to think about it. Though she did realize this might be something to do with how a link is formed between the King and their peerage members when they join one.

When she held them closer to her heart to see what else she might could feel, she felt happiness, confusion, and a little bit of sadness coming from her unknown Pawn and wondered what it might mean and what was going on in their life.

**Meanwhile**

**Grigori Training Room**

As Azazel's headache went away, he came back to the realization that he was one, no longer in the Isolation Barrier, and two, seemed to be back in Grigori, and three, looked like he may be back in time as he could see a younger Vali back before the gender gun incident had happened so he wasn't sure what to think anymore. As that thought hit him, so did the whiplash of what had happened right before he had died in the future timeline. "What the heck is going on here." He said, completely putting aside the fight he'd been in before the memories came back until he heard first Issei try and talk then Vali doing the same thing as her memories came flooding through.

"I agree Azazel. What the hell just happened to us and why are we back in time?" Vali stated suffering the whiplash as well but her mind caught up to the fact Issei was nearby quicker than it did for Azazel. "And what the heck are you doing here Issei? What's going on."

Issei could only sigh at their responses as he knew this would not be a happy chat they were about to have but he was thankful that he didn't have to hide anything anymore from them. "I'm sure you both have a lot of questions and I honestly have a few of my own, but can we go back to your office Azazel so we can talk in a more comfortable environment?"

Azazel had come out of his stunned state enough to realize what Vali had stated was true and couldn't disagree with Issei as he wanted some answers himself so he took the lead back to his office.

**Scene Skip**

After reaching the office and everyone calming down some, Issei took the reins to get started. "I'm sure you both have a ton of questions but how about I get my part out of the way first then we can get to any questions that it doesn't answer." He said, getting a nod from the two at that.

"A year after we sealed Trihexa, he broke free once more and we couldn't get ahold of anyone from the barrier field so we assumed the worst. I spent two weeks fighting the Beast all over the world and lost all my friends and loved ones in that time frame and in the final fight where I thought I was going to die, I was pulled into the Dimensional Gap by Great Red who gave me an option to get stronger.

"He offered me the chance to be sent back in time to my childhood to train to be stronger and to be ready to face the Beast once more and hopefully defeat it this time around and he would come back in time himself to help me out some from the Dimensional Gap as a voice of reason among other things. I hadn't been back in time long before I ran into you by chance at the park Azazel and we decided to approach you and see what would happen from there."

At this point, Azazel stepped in since it seemed like Issei was done for the most part with his story. "Ok, that explains a lot but why did our memories come back? I've never known there was time travel magic, but I'm not surprised by that or that Great Red would know that magic."

"All I honestly know about that is there is a chance for people close to me, both friends and enemies alike, to regain their memories after a trigger occurs in their lives but past that I can't tell you. You two are only the third and fourth to regain their memories and the other two had it after seeing me fight away some bullies at the park the same day I met you in this timeline Azazel." He said getting looks of interest from both of them as Issei remembered something else. "Though also on that note, right when I woke up in this timeline I had a headache hit which leads me to believe someone else has remembered but I have yet to run into them."

Nodding her head at those words, Vali could see what he was saying while still stunned at everything that had happened, both in the previous timeline as well as this one. "That's true since we all know how many different people you've met in just the supernatural world. Though I would know less than even you Issei or Azazel on the subject, even I find it weird that someone regained their memories without even meeting you in this timeline."

Azazel had to agree with Vali on that, but couldn't help a nagging feeling come into his head he couldn't place yet. "I haven't heard anything in the rumor mill about someone regaining possible memories or flashbacks, though I don't know if I would have heard about it happening since the three factions are still in a détente right now…" He said as that finally triggered his memory that was nagging at the back of his mind, causing him to jump up in shock. "Shit! We got to move now!" He said, catching the attention of Issei and Vali.

Vali, who one could say knew Azazel the best of the two, knew something had to be big for Azazel to be this scared. "What happened?"

"I forgot until just now due to everything going on but I sent Baraqiel on his mission that cost Shuri her life right before the latest spar." He said, generating a magic circle as Vali and Issei's eyes widened.

While Issei had known about the incident, he'd completely forgotten about it since he had come back in time. "Let's go. I just hope we aren't too late." He hoped they weren't too late as he knew how traumatic the event was for Akeno. Though when they arrived at the shrine, it was too late as it was already destroyed. "Damnit, we didn't make it in time."

"You're right and it's my fault once more that this happened," Azazel said, pissed off at himself once more at the events that transpired, though in this case, his memories came back too late to warn him not to send Baraqiel on the mission. Speaking of Baraqiel, right at that time, the man himself popped up in a magic circle nearby. "Baraqiel! There you are!"

Baraqiel had just teleported back to his family's home after the attack from his wife's family on Shuri and his daughter. He'd sensed the attack through the sensors he had put in place around his house when the attack started but he was too late to save Shuri but before he could get his daughter out of there, if she would have listened as mad as she was at him for not being there, he felt more enemies appear and went to deal with them but got caught in a teleportation trap that activated too fast for him to stop.

What he saw when he got back to the shrine was the house completely destroyed with no sign of Akeno, but he did turn when he heard his voice called out by his boss. "Azazel! What are you doing here?!"

Thinking fast as he didn't want to talk about the time travel part right now, he finally recognized what part of the precognition was that he dismissed when talking to Issei. "I had a set of wards down that alerted me to something wrong at your house but we arrived too late to do anything." He said getting a solemn nod from Baraqiel at that as he noticed the other two alongside Azazel.

While he had known Vali for over a year at this point, he hadn't known Issei that long yet though did consider him a good boy that seemed to know what he was doing. While he hadn't had the chance to bring Akeno to meet Issei, he had a feeling that they would have been good friends. But before he could comment anything else, Azazel stepped in first.

"I know you want to grieve Baraqiel and trust me you'll have as much time as you want to, but how about we go back to Grigori to talk over what happened and not risk any more scenes here." He said, getting a resigned nod from the Cadre at that.

While Azazel would normally have possibly taken the scene at a lot more somber mood, he knew they should get away from the area for now and talk about it back in his office. With that, the group teleported back to Grigori HQ.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: And that's the end of the chapter. Few things to go over.
> 
> Well, Akeno's scene has just occurred. And before anyone gets pissed off at me, Akeno is still alive, we just won't see anything from her until later in the story.
> 
> Since I couldn't find anything concrete on when Akeno lost her mother in the canon timeline past when she met up with Rias, we decided to go ahead and add that part into this section of the story. We'd always planned on Issei catching Shuri's soul in some way and came across this way to do it as well as how to approach the subject since like I said all I could find was something to do with finding Rias for a timeline.
> 
> Don't know if anyone will think this or not but figured I'd comment anyways. Yes it seems like people are remembering really quickly so far in the story but we'll get to a point soon where it stops for a while and only goes to 1 at a time remembering.
> 
> Thanks go to Raghav_Garg for coming to me with the idea as well as helping me brainstorm this story; everything from the arcs to different ideas on how we wanted to handle different aspects to come.
> 
> The first chant for CCP was chosen as I felt that it would fit better in this situation than the one he creates when he faces Shalba once more just for those that may be curious why I went with this one.
> 
> Feel free to join my discord if you want: use the code zwJu3MZ to get in.
> 
> I have set up my own Patreon for those that want to support me that way. Look up deltanz for my profile and it has the same profile picture as on here.
> 
> With that, until the next chapter where we'll dive more into what happened between the previous timeline and this point as well as what else might happen with Vali and Azazel's memories back.


	8. Ch 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Welcome to the next chapter. Nothing to add here so let's get onto the chapter.

As the group got ready to teleport back to Grigori, Issei suddenly felt a powerful urge to stay behind for a minute. "Go on without me. I need to check something out before we go here in Kuoh." He said, getting a nod from Azazel at that as the others left. "Ddraig, did you feel that too, or was it just me."

 **'[I felt something but I couldn't place it outside of being in this area itself so I would stay cautious if you were to look around.]'** Ddraig agreed as he couldn't place what he had felt right as the group went to leave.

As Issei carefully walked around the destroyed shrine, he noticed just how much power had to have been used to take it down along with everything else in the area but past that, he couldn't tell what type of magic was done to do it with. As he got closer to the shrine itself, he felt a tug to one corner of the house and went to it, only to find what looked like a Fallen Angel feather, which once he picked it up, he could feel was giving off the presence he had felt earlier. It also felt somewhat familiar. "Ddraig, Red, any ideas?"

 **'That would be Shuri's soul as I was able to help at the last minute by bringing her soul to me before I put it in the feather you have Issei as I hoped that it would be found by someone, either you, Baraqiel, or anyone else that the Fallen might send to investigate the scene and I can't say that it's a bad thing that you found it first.'** Red said, having known how much this event had caused issues in the future and how Issei would want to help Akeno so when he felt Shuri's soul still in the area he had helped them out by putting it into the feather for someone to find. At the look of confusion from Issei, he continued.

**'Don't forget, you can 'carry' items in the Boosted Gear just like you do Ascalon so it's likely you could do it with this feather as well. Though in this case, her soul could transfer into the Boosted Gear as another entity living inside of it just like Ddraig does, so you would need to keep that in mind.'**

**'[You're my first host that tried to add anything to the Boosted Gear like Ascalon so I only have this to go by but I would think that if you wish to add the feather in like you did Ascalon, even if just to store it would work. If Shuri does wake up in the Gear and can talk to us, I don't think it would cause any issues and between all of us and Azazel since he has his memories back, I think we could find a way to fix it if something does go wrong.]'** Ddraig said after a moment of thought. If it had been before he'd met Issei, he felt he wouldn't have agreed to do what they were about to try, but he knew he wasn't likely to ever get another host like this one for how interesting things have become and with how things ended before they time traveled, he was willing to try some stuff he otherwise might not.

Issei couldn't help but agree with the two of them and their point. He likely wouldn't have thought about her soul awakening if he put the feather into the Gear for safekeeping but it would make sense that something like that could happen, especially with the Biblical God dead as he could see that causing issues. He also agreed on the fact Azazel would likely be able to help them figure something out if it came to it. "Let's do it then. I would normally not agree to something like this so quickly but since you're ok with it Ddraig let's do it."

After confirming it with Ddraig, he called forth the Boosted Gear and put the feather on top of the gem after Ddraig's words on what to do with it. After he did that, he could feel some of the power from the Gear come out and surround the feather before it was pulled into the gem.

 **'I don't think we will have to worry about Shuri's soul waking up anytime soon if I had to guess so we should be fine for now but you should warn Azazel now so he can be prepared if something does happen.'** Red commented getting a nod from Issei as he thought about what to do next.

Right as he decided to teleport to Grigori, he changed his mind and pulled out his phone to do something he had hoped would happen one day as he sent a text to Kaori and Yui to see if they were free later today to meet someone. He'd thought about taking Yui and Kaori to see Azazel again but was afraid to do it until Azazel regained his memories so it wouldn't cause any issues in this timeline. With that done and the promise to come get them later as he had something else to deal with first, he teleported back to Azazel's office.

**Scene Skip**

After he got back to Grigori, he learned more about what had happened from Baraqiel than he had known in the previous timeline since he'd only heard Akeno's side of the story.

Baraqiel had been sent on a mission to check on a possible rogue Fallen Angel that was skirting the lines and Azazel knew he had to have someone he could trust check it out, and that's when Shuri's family struck as they had been watching closely to catch him away from the house. They were able to kill Shuri before Baraqiel got back due to the alert system he'd put in place but he couldn't get anything else done due to Akeno trying to keep him away from her mother before he felt more presences outside and when he went to deal with them they had a teleportation trap set up for him and he couldn't stop it in time before he got teleported out. By the time he got himself free and back to the shrine, the three of them had shown up and that was that as he didn't know what had happened when he was teleported out.

Issei sighed in frustration as he heard what had happened as he hadn't been able to help in this situation at all since he hadn't known when the event actually happened last time. He had been secretly hoping to help his peerage mates where he could, even if from the sidelines this time around and he'd missed his first chance now but there wasn't anything he could do for them at the time. "I wish we could have made it in time to help you and you have my sincerest apologies for the loss of your family." He said, hoping that Akeno hadn't died in this timeline and had somehow survived the blast, but he had no way of knowing at the moment.

Baraqiel couldn't help but be thankful that this young boy was acting like he did even if they hadn't much much conversation or interactions between the first time they met and now. "While I thank you for that, I know it wasn't anyone in here's fault as they struck while they had a chance. I knew that they hated Shuri for marrying me but I never expected them to go this far."

"You're right and I wish I had been able to help you out more than this, but this is an order. Take time off, go and see if you can't figure anything out from the remains, and don't worry about your work here. You need time to grieve and you'll have it." Azazel stepped in since he knew that this was something that Baraqiel would need and even if he hadn't gotten his memories back, he would have done this much and more for his friend.

Once Baraqiel left, after trying to say he didn't need the time, but Azazel and Vali finally talking him into it, Vali turned back to the original point of the meeting before they rushed off to the shrine. "Much as I'm sure the two of you would love to keep talking about what just happened and I would normally agree but shouldn't we be getting back to what happened right before that since there isn't a whole lot we can do right now unless Baraqiel asks for help." She suggested, having known Baraqiel long enough to know he won't ask for help, for now, getting a nod from Azazel at that and Issei accepted it since he didn't know Baraqiel all that well to be honest.

Issei though didn't have much left to comment on unless they had any questions. "That's honestly all I have for now though I do have a question Azazel for you since I can now ask someone that was there when it happened." He said, before continuing after he got a confused look from Azazel. "What happened in the isolation field that caused the Beast to break free. If you don't want to talk about it yet I can easily understand but it's something we never knew in the future, or if we did I never heard what it was." But before Azazel could comment either way, Issei had another idea.

"Before that though, I have some people that would love to see you again I'm sure Azazel so let me go grab them real quick." He commented, before heading back home to get the Kendo girls and leaving a confused Azazel on who he might be bringing.

**Scene Skip**

After meeting up with the two girls and let them know that they were going to meet someone that they knew from the previous timeline that had also regained their memories, Issei teleported the three of them back to Azazel's office. Once the two girls had gotten situated with the teleportation, they looked around before seeing Azazel which shocked them to see him once more. "Azazael?!" They both cried out in shock at seeing their old teacher once more.

Azazel for his part was surprised at who Issei had brought to see him. He had known that two others had remembered as well, but he wasn't expecting two of the girls that he taught while a teacher at Kuoh Academy, since as far as he knew, they didn't know about the supernatural. "Hello, girls. It's been a while." He said, before turning to Issei for some help in this situation.

Issei could only laugh at the group as the girls turned towards him wondering what he was laughing at the group for. "They know about the supernatural Azazel so you don't have to worry about that." He commented getting an oh from Azazel as he turned towards the girls, now understanding why they were here and why they didn't seem worried about the teleportation. "They had a contract with Asia right before Trihexa broke free and learned of it then and had their memories come back the same day I met you at the park." After he commented that he turned towards the two again. "You know Azazel but the other person here you never met in the previous timeline so let me introduce you. This is Vali and she was someone that helped me out in the previous timeline many times, and is also my rival." He said, to the girl's confusion.

"You know how I've told you about my Sacred Gear and it's one of the strongest right," he asked getting a nod. "Well, Ddraig was not the only dragon that was at his level and Vali here is the wielder of the Sacred Gear of the other dragon that was at the level and the two had a rivalry that their hosts normally kept up. I'll go into detail more later but thanks to events that happened in the previous timeline, we ended our rivalry and now work together."

Yui couldn't help but notice one thing about the introductions. "Why didn't you give us her last name?"

"Due to family issues that are not mine to tell, she no longer goes by her last name though she might tell you at some point down the line." He commented, getting an understanding nod from the two before Issei turned towards Vali. "you can trust these two and I'm sure you'll come to agree with me in time but I felt I should say that now and we'll see what happens." He commented, getting a nod from her as Azazel stepped in with a comment.

"From what I remember in my time as a teacher, I can agree with Issei on that Vali with these two, but does anyone have a comment before I go into what Issei asked before he left?"

Kaori had one, though it was more of a confirmation than a question. Issei had already told the two of them that Azazel had been a part of the supernatural and where he had actually gone when he left but he didn't say that he had met him yet, which while they had been talking back and forth, she'd realized that he hadn't likely told them because if what she guessed was right, it might have caused issues until now. "Just so we're all on the same picture here, everyone in this room has regained their memories from the future timeline, right? I'm guessing Vali and Azazel just recently regained their memories and it would have caused issues if you weren't careful."

"Correct. I first talked to Azazel the day I ran into the two of you actually after our meeting and have been working with both Vali and Azazel in training on stuff that they could help me with while also getting in sword training with the two of you. They just recently got their memories back and after an incident that happened earlier, I decided to go and grab the two of you just so everyone that currently is known to have their memories back is caught up on everything." He commented, getting nods from everyone though Yui and Kaori were going to ask about what he meant by everyone known being here that had their memories back, but then remembered that he said someone else had remembered when he first time traveled that he hadn't run into yet. "We were about to dive into what happened from Azazel's viewpoint as he was in the barrier field where Trihexa was sealed when it broke free when I went to grab you two."

Azazel nodded as everyone found a seat to sit on before looking at him. "Your right Issei and to be honest while I know when it happened, I don't know how it did. We had just received one of our many supply runs we get occasionally when Trihexa let loose with this massive blast of power, stronger than I'd ever seen before, and aimed it at the spot where the supplies come through and it somehow broke the barrier apart. While we had put backup plans in place for this type of situation, Trihexa hit too hard and fast for them to take place and stop it, though the one we had hoped would help actually seemed to have backfired in this case as we had set it up to where the field would collapse and help us out more if he somehow found a way out, but it collapsed too late and killed us in the process and the Beast escaped." He stated, getting it all out before he pulled out some sake to drink to help calm himself down, while the rest of the group sat there stunned at the news.

"A lot of that might be an educated guess, but that's my take since that's all I can remember before I got killed. Whether the barrier had somehow weakened while we were in there fighting enough for it to break out, or just blind luck I couldn't tell you, but we all know where that ended up."

Kaori wasn't sure what to think. While she had heard some of what the supernatural world was about with having trained with Issei these past few months but it didn't stop her wondering just what else had happened that none of the non-supernatural people knew about. "Wow. I honestly don't know what to think about that. Is there anything we can do right now to help stop this beast from being released?"

"At our current status… no. We don't even know where it was sealed by my father, the Biblical God, and due to current situations, we can't ask either." He said, not wanting to open up that wound right now with these girls that his father was dead, but Issei stepped in as he knew what Azazel was thinking.

"I already warned them about that Azazel. I knew it would be harsh and could have ended badly if I wasn't careful but they honestly took it better than I thought they would." He commented, which gave the girls an idea of what they were talking about.

It had been only a month after they had run into each other when he brought them into his room and set up a strong barrier before letting them in on one of the supernatural world's biggest secrets; the death of the Biblical God and the original four Satans. While they were both definitely stunned by the revelation, they were able to understand why when they heard what he had been fighting before his death.

Seeing as they had already been warned about it, Azazel continued. "How about, for now, we call this meeting done since we can always talk more about what's going to happen from here at a later date unless someone else has a comment."

Issei was about to say he didn't when he remembered the feather. "Actually, yes I do though I'm not sure if you'll be able to do anything with it yet." He said, getting confused looks from everyone. "To add a little backstory for you Kaori, Yui, right before I brought the two of you here, we had an incident where Akeno's mother lost her life protecting Akeno, and while we know she lived in the previous timeline, we aren't sure if she's alive right now or not as we weren't able to make it in time to stop the incident in this timeline." He started, getting stunned looks from them as they realized who he was talking about and they hadn't known she'd had that sort of trauma in her past.

"It's not my story to tell past that but right after we got done with that incident, I felt a presence at their shrine and found to my shock a feather with Shuri's soul latched onto it," he finished, knowing that while the two Kendoka might not know the name, it would instantly register with Azazel and he instantly gained a stunned look as those words registered in his head. "I have the feather within the Boosted Gear as I figured you would be able to do something with it Azazel at some point if I saved it."

"Thank you, Issei. I don't know what to say right now but with this, hopefully, this will allow me to atone for this mistake much easier this time around." Azazel said, tears coming to his eyes as he thanked Issei for that save. "While I wouldn't mind trying to do something now to help Baraqiel, the technology of Grigori isn't strong enough to clone a human yet and since the peace treaty is still years away… we'll have to work this out later," Azazel said before they ended the meeting for the time being.

**Scene Skip**

As the night closed in, Issei couldn't help but look back at what had happened during the day. First, the memories coming back for Vali and Azazel, something he was happy had finally happened as he didn't have to hide anything from them anymore. Then the whole event with Akeno's family, something which he was still kicking himself for not being able to help them with since he had known about it but with everything else going on in his life, it slipped his mind. Thankfully, everyone that had their memories back that he knew of was in the loop now on who knew what and the Kendo girls had been able to get a room for the night in Grigori and they would figure out plans for them tomorrow. But before his mind could go farther down that rabbit hole, a knock came from his door.

"Issei, can I come in?" Vali asked, having come by to talk to him once they were alone.

'Speak of the devil and she shall appear.' Issei thought chuckling at how he'd been thinking about her not long before and now she appears at his door. Walking up to the door to open it, he noticed she hadn't changed her clothes from earlier and seemed to have come here before going to her room. "Come on in. I was just thinking about the day we'd had today. What's up?"

As Vali went to sit on the edge of his bed, Issei decided to pull up his chair from the desk in the room and sat in it backward to look at her more comfortably. "What's on your mind."

Vali wasn't sure where to start honestly so just started with an easy subject. "I'm sure that you've been wondering why I'm a girl in this timeline compared to when you knew me previously."

Issei snorted softly at the way she put it but didn't disagree. "Right before you barged into the office, I had realized that I would run into you at some point in my time I would spend with Azazel but I wasn't expecting you to be a girl I'll admit and Red was the one that told us that you were the real deal but wouldn't tell us what had happened as he had looked into it himself. If you want to tell me or not is up to you as I'm not going to push you to tell me if it's something personal."

Vali couldn't help but laugh at that part of Issei that she remembered from the previous timeline. "It's not anything personal honestly, like my grandfather doing something to me or whatever. You know the gender gun Azazel had but swore to never use?" She asked, getting a snort from Issei as he remembered it alright and how much Azazel seemed to hate that one invention.

"For a little backstory, I only was a boy in the previous timeline due to that gun as it misfired the first time he used it and turned me into the boy you knew me as and nothing he could do would change me back so I was stuck like it and to be honest, once I finally got past the shock and anger of it, I realized it could help me hopefully stay hidden from my family until I was ready to deal with them, though we both know how that ended." She said before looking down at the floor.

Thanks to Albion's help, she was able to keep her emotions in check from the backlash that occurred when she regained her memories and her 'death', but she could still feel it in the back of her head. Thankfully, Albion seemed to have not been affected by it as much and was a big help. What she wasn't expecting was for Issei to get out of his chair to come and sit beside her.

Issei couldn't help but notice it looked like she was still reeling from the effects of regaining her memories and what it might be doing to her. Since he hadn't died in the previous timeline, he didn't have a clue on what it might entail for someone having their memories come back like that. "I'll admit I don't know the pain you might be going through right now with your memories coming back, but I'm here if you want to talk." He commented before she surprised him with a hug.

"Thank you. That means a lot to me." She said as she hugged him tight, thankful that he was here. Now that he had brought that up, she timidly tried to get into the next part of why she was here, though she wasn't sure how it would go. "Now that we got this part done, onto the more embarrassing part." She started before Issei cut her off with a laugh.

"Let me guess, where do we stand between us." He commented, having expected this conversation for some time, and getting a blush from her. He'd admit to thinking about it some but he hadn't made any decisions on his end due to the previous timeline, and until now, not sure what had caused Vali to be a boy in the past.

"I'll admit to giving it some thought and I'm not against it but with everything that's happened in the past and now and I can't give you an answer right now but I won't say I'm against it if we decide to try something out. Just remember about all of the other girls that I had in the previous timeline and hopefully will have again." He said, getting a nod from her as she accepted it and after giving him one more hug, left him alone for the night.

**Scene Skip. 1 Week later**

**Kyoto**

Issei was making his way towards Yasaka's shrine as part of a job for Azazel. Azazel had been looking into way's he might could hasten the process of bringing back Shuri and had found out that the Yokai in Kyoto might have a way to do it or speed up the process whenever it came time and had been able to get a meeting set up with Yasaka on getting the ball rolling at least and had sent Issei out as his ambassador and Issei didn't mind as he would love to see the two again.

As he finally reached the stairs to the shrine, he started running up the stairs, but as he finally looked towards the top, he noticed two faces he recognized as Kunou and Yasaka which surprised him that they would be waiting for him.

Kunou was waiting happily for Issei to appear when she finally saw him running up the stairs. Once he finally reached the top, she couldn't contain herself at finally seeing him once again and jumped happily into his arms. "Issei! You finally came to visit." Surprising him as he didn't know what to expect as he caught her and getting a sigh from her mother, but she smiled as well at seeing him.

Issei wasn't sure what to think about what was going on but the way they were acting made him wonder. 'Are they the ones that remembered when I first traveled? But if so, how did I not have two headaches.' He thought to himself as he set Kunou down much to her unhappiness. "Well, this is a surprise. Am I to assume you know what's happened?"

Yasaka was glad to finally see Issei and hopefully get some answers on what was going on and why they were back in time. "If you mean that our memories are back then yes. How about we go inside so we can sit down and talk more comfortably. We have a lot to discuss." She said getting a nod from Issei at that as Kunou grabbed his hand and the three of them walked inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: And that's the end of the chapter and we see finally who regained there memories right when he fast traveled. How you might ask? Well, you'll have to wait until next chapter for that information, though if anyone wants to guess, you can dm me with your guesses. Couple things.
> 
> The scene with Vali in Issei's room wasn't originally going to turn out like that but I felt now was a good time to bring up that she would be one of his harem in this story line.
> 
> Feel free to join my discord if you want: use the code zwJu3MZ to get in.
> 
> I have set up my own P-atreon for those that want to support me that way. Look up deltanz for my profile and it has the same profile picture as on here.
> 
> Thanks go to Raghav_Garg for coming to me with the idea as well as helping me brainstorm this story; everything from the arcs to different ideas on how we wanted to handle different aspects to come.
> 
> With those out of the way, until next chapter.


	9. Ch 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Welcome to the next chapter. Couple of things to add here.
> 
> If you didn't recognize it or haven't read the LN's, the resupplying of the Isolation barrier mentioned in the last chapter is a canon reference that was mentioned in either volume 22 or 23 from what I remember. I meant to put this last chapter but forgot.
> 
> I do not own High School DxD or any of its characters. Any OC characters, equipment, etc… are created by me for this or any of my stories unless stated in an A/N.
> 
> With that, let's get onto the chapter.

As the three of them sat down with some tea served by a maid, Issei couldn't help but wonder why the two of them had their memory back and why it had happened without them meeting each other once more. And from what Red had said when he had the headache, he didn't think he would be able to answer it either so just decided to go with the flow for now. "So I'm sure the two of you have questions, and I've got a few myself but how about we start with what you last remember before your memories came back."

Yasaka could understand the question and had been wondering that herself what all had happened to make it be where they were back in time and what had caused her memories to come back. "That is a suitable area for me to get the ball rolling as I'm quite curious as to what in the world happened. The last thing I remember before my memories came back was that the Beast had broken free and I honestly at the time knew that no one would be able to stop it so while I did try and defend Kyoto I knew it wouldn't work so died in peace. I do remember that much but I do find it odd about regaining my memories and what triggered them.

"Back while I was pregnant with Kunou I had a warning given to me by a Yokai priest about a boy who would come to me that loved breasts above all else and would help me in my biggest time of need and next thing I know I've got this massive headache that rolls through me and my memories are back. I've been trying to quietly find out any information I could but it wasn't until I heard that you were the one being sent by Azazel to this meeting that I had hopes once more." She said before taking a sip of her tea and letting Issei take over from there.

Issei wasn't too sure what to think about the whole situation honestly though he could see why that might be enough for a memory trigger with what little he knew about how it all worked out. "Well, if I'm being honest, I could see that being a trigger with the way I used to be, though I am trying to change my ways in this timeline. Right during my final battle against it, I was pulled away by Great Red himself into the Dimensional Gap where he gave me the choice of being sent back in time to grow strong enough to deal with the Beast this time around. I've been back a little over seven months so far and have started training under Azazel and Vali Lucifer who have also gained their memories back as well as two of my friends from high school."

Yasaka could understand why Issei might want to go back in time to stop an event like that from happening but still wasn't sure on a couple of points. "Ok, I can understand that and why you would want to come back, even if I'm surprised that Great Red would willingly help you but that's a minor point in this whole situation. I'm still confused on why we got our memories back and like you said how they came back before you time traveled."

"That's something that Red told me could happen with anyone that knew me in the previous timeline, both friend and foe, is that they could regain their memories once a trigger of some sort is done, though I don't know what any of the triggers are until they happen. Yours seemed to be the warning given, while Azazel and Vali's was seeing my Crimson Promotion armor from what I can figure out, while my school friends was seeing me defend them from bullies so the triggers aren't really following a pattern, at least not yet. The one thing I'm not sure about though is how Kunou also remembers since she wasn't born yet when yours came back. If it was a separate instance, I could see it happening, with what little knowledge I have on this type of stuff, but I just don't know right now." Issei commented, getting nods from the two but before either of them could comment on it, the Boosted Gear popped up on his arm and Ddraig spoke up his thoughts.

 **"[I have a theory on that after listening to the three of you talk. It's possible that since you were pregnant with Kunou at the time, it somehow affected her memories as well since something like this might consider the two of you 'one' person at the time, which wouldn't be far off.]"** He commented, surprising both Yasaka and Kunou at his popping up to speak, though Yasaka came back quickly and couldn't disagree with it after thinking on the matter some.

"It would make sense as I did feel the magic flowing around her when I remembered and then when she was born, her first word was Issei," Yasaka said, poking fun at her daughter who wasn't fast enough at catching onto what her mother was talking about to try and stop her from saying anything embarrassing but she was too late and could only pout at her mother before Issei patted her on the head calming her down.

Since she had at least gotten some closure on what had happened to cause her memories to come back, Yasaka decided to get to what Issei had originally come here for. "So, since we can always come back to this subject, how about we get to what you actually came here for."

Issei couldn't disagree with her statement so shifted gears over to it instead of what they had been talking about. "I can work with that and it will possibly be easier since you have your memories back on who I'm talking about. We had an incident last week where Akeno Himejima's mother passed away protecting Akeno from her mother's side of the family and we were too late to save her mother, I never knew when it actually happened in the past and Azazel didn't have his memories back yet, only regaining them right as it happened, but I was able to save Shuri's soul and put it in a feather thanks to Great Red stepping in and helping me after we reached the scene. While Grigori's technology isn't at a high enough level yet to clone humans, we had the thought that maybe the Yokai might have an idea on how we might could speed up the process or a way to do it sooner."

While Yasaka had heard that something had traumatized Akeno in the previous timeline, she hadn't known the full reasoning behind it and now that she did, she couldn't help but feel sad for the girl but she also could see why Azazel would want to try and help bring the family back together. "Off the top of my head, we don't have a way to bring back a human yet but there is a chance it's been looked into in another faction of Youkai not under my watch. I will ask around and see if any of my contacts have any leads that will help but I will gladly help you in this endeavor." She said, getting an enthusiastic nod from Kunou.

"Thank you, this will definitely make Azazel happy and it gives me hope in helping my friends where I can in this time frame." He said before he decided to bring up another idea he'd been thinking about since he'd heard of the mission to Kyoto. He hadn't had a chance to talk to Azazel about it since at the time it seemed like a small chance of happening but with Yasaka's memories back, it might work.

"Now that we have that figured out, for now, I have a suggestion that I hope we can work something out with but I didn't have a chance to bring to Azazel's attention yet." He commented, getting an interested look from Yasaka. "What about if possible both Grigori and the Youkai sign a peace treaty between each other for now and then when it comes time for the Three Factions Treaty to be signed, it would be easy for you to join us in an official one between the factions."

After hearing the idea, Yasaka sat back in contemplation. While the Yokai hadn't been a part of the official treaty in the previous timeline, they were on decent terms at first which got better with the Biblical Factions near the time Trihexa was released so she didn't mind the idea. "I wouldn't mind the idea of joining in officially with the Factions in the treaty if they would accept us, which I don't doubt they will but it's still a minor concern. If Azazel is agreeing on making an official peace treaty between our groups until then, than I have no issues with it."

Issei nodded happily at the thought of possibly getting peace between factions started early this time around and decided to go ahead and go talk to Azazel about it now. But before he left, he thought of something that he might should mention so it didn't come as a shock to them. "Before I leave, I have something I probly should mention now so it doesn't come as a surprise. I won't go into how it happened as its not mine to tell, though it's a hilarious story in itself, Vali is not a boy in this timeline due to an incident that hadn't happened yet." He commented, getting a look of interest of Yasaka at the news before they ended the meeting for now with Issei promising to stop by often to Kunou's happiness.

**Scene Skip**

In the month since Issei's meeting with Yasaka, Azazel had agreed with Issei on getting a treaty signed with Yasaka for now but once they started talking over the agreement, they ran into a possible issue. Funnily enough, it was Vali who had brought it up: what will the other factions do when they hear about an unexpected treaty between Grigori and the Yokai might cause some factions to get concerned, so they decided to, on paper at least, have it be an unofficial treaty between the two groups for now until relations between the Factions were better like they were in the previous timeline.

One of the first things that came out of the treaty was the mission that Issei was on now which was to the country of Romania on a mission to see what he can do to help Gasper. After not being able to help Akeno with her situation, he made sure to get in as much research as he could about when all the other members of Rias's peerage before he joined had their issues and was able to be put in place in Romania before Gasper ran away to help make sure he reached Rias in one piece. The one thing though that none of them were sure of was if Valerie Tepes would be with him.

Valerie was a wild card in the group's eyes since she was part of the plot that eventually awoke Trihexa and while they were trying to keep the plot the same with this timeline, they knew that they should also help her out if he came across her and would cross that part of the previous timeline at a later date.

"Damn, I can't see a thing through this fog," Issei said as he tried to get his bearings after he was teleported. Azazel had teleported him as close as he dared to Romania and to where they knew Gasper and Valerie were living and now he just had to try and make sure he didn't miss them as they had never heard where exactly he had escaped from the country at. He also had a set of exorcist guns given to him by Azazel as extra protection as well as a hooded cloak that would help him blend into his surroundings.

Ddraig could only sigh at his partner, not sure what to think. **"[Don't forget about the glasses you got from Azazel for this situation. You knew you'd have to deal with the fog when you got here.]"**

Grumbling at Ddraig as he had forgotten about the glasses in both his excitement in seeing Gasper again, even if likely from a distance, to the worry he won't be on time like what happened with Akeno. Though that fear became unfounded a minute later.

As Issei got his bearings and realized he was in a forest, he heard a twig snap nearby which lead him to turn around and take cover behind a tree as he saw two what looked like two Vampires running nearby. 'Is that them?'

The boy looked just like a younger Gasper to Issei but if he had to guess the other would be Valerie. The bishoujo was definitely a Vampire with the ears and platinum hair blowing in the wind behind her as they ran but that ended when she tripped over a tree root and lost hold of Gasper's hand.

"Valerie!" Gasper cried out to his friend which also cemented that these were the two Issei was looking for as Gasper tried to pull Valerie back to her feet but she hissed in pain as she tried to put weight on her right foot but now Issei could see that it was twisted the wrong way and while it didn't look broke to him from this distance, it definitely was sprained. "Please don't give up on me yet or they'll catch up to us soon!"

"I can't Gasper. That fall twisted my ankle and I can't keep going anymore. Get going without me."

"No! I can't do that to you. Don't make me leave without you!" Gasper said crying as he kept trying to pull her to her feet but she wouldn't let him.

"If you don't leave now none of us will live so please! Run for me and live! Find the life you couldn't have before for both of us!" She said, pushing him away before he finally left her crying as she smiled at him before leaning back against the tree nearby as she waited for their pursuers to arrive, having not realized Issei was nearby yet.

'Don't worry Gasper, I'll make sure you're able to see Valerie again soon,' Issei thought to himself as he stepped out of cover surprising Valerie as he came into her line of sight. "That was a lot of courage you showed there, sending him off like you did and I admire that." He said though he was a little confused at first at her next words until he remembered what he was wearing.

Valerie wasn't sure what to think of the kid that just showed up in front of her that she'd never seen before but while her first thought was he was one of the hunters sent after her and Gasper, it didn't make sense that he wouldn't have struck before Gasper left her here. "Are you one of the Vampire Hunters sent to kill me?" She asked Issei, trying but failing to keep her voice steady and getting a confused look from Issei until she pointed to his guns which is when he realized what she was talking about.

"No, no, no. I'm wearing these as a backup to my Sacred Gear in case I got attacked. I actually came here to protect the two of you as I heard about you from my superior, though you sent Gasper away before I could get close enough to do anything about it." He said, giving a half-truth to her question.

"You've heard of us? But how. And why would you want to save us? We're just half breeds that are looked down upon by the Pure-blooded Vampire's and ostracized by the humans." She said, before flinching as he came up to her and put a hand on her shoulder in a comforting manner.

"None of that matters to me or my superior as we don't care what background you come from and I have a good feeling about you after watching the scene with the other Vampire that happened. Plus I have a feeling that your friend won't be on his own for long," he commented but before she could comment on that weird phrase of his, he felt the Hunter's she mentioned reach their location. "But now let me deal with your pursuers." He said as he turned away from her to her confusion until the Hunters came into view.

"Unless you want to be killed, I would leave now as this girl is coming with me." He said, letting out some of his killer intent hoping to not have a confrontation but knowing there was little chance of them leaving.

"You think we'll listen to you, a human? Don't make me laugh." The apparent leader of the group said as while he didn't like the feeling of the killing intent being sent towards them, his arrogance didn't let him think they'd lose. "We aren't leaving here until we kill the half-breed abomination behind you and find her friend that soiled their family names by not only being born but by running away." The leader said causing Valerie to look down in defeat while Issei just sighed at the arrogance he remembered most Vampires showed at anyone that wasn't pure-blooded and he called upon the Boosted Gear.

"Then you'll have to go through me to get to her. I don't care if she's not a pure-blooded Vampire or her origins and she'll be coming with me." He said which caused the leader of the Hunters to growl in annoyance and order his people forward.

Pulling out his pistols and also calling on the powers of Ddraig, Issei started punching back Vampires and boosting the bullets of the guns through **"[Boost!]"** and taking them out by hitting them in their knees and forcing them to the ground. While he could have called upon Ascalon to help as well, he knew it might call the attention of Heaven and he wasn't quite ready for that, though it looked like he wouldn't need it anyways as after he took down their leader without killing him, the rest pulled back in wariness as they finally realized that they were both outmatched and what exactly they were up against.

As Issei saw them finally back off, he also backed up a little bit though kept his guns ready and Gear out as he tried once more to get them to leave. "I'll once more tell you to leave this girl alone. I left your friends alive this time but next time I won't be as lenient. Now take your allies and leave." He said lifting his guns in the air once more before sighing in relief as the ones still standing gathered up their fallen allies and left the area in a hurry.

Thankful that they had finally left, he turned back towards Valerie and offered his hand. "I'm sorry I didn't do this earlier but I'm Issei Hyoudou, this generation's Red Dragon Emperor. If you'll allow me to, I'll take you somewhere safe that we can get your foot checked out and a safe place to live."

Valerie honestly wasn't sure what to think about this boy that just suddenly showed up to help her but she decided to take the plunge as she had nothing to lose in this case. "Valerie Tepes and yes I'll take your hospitality. Thank you." She said as he helped her up and offered her a shoulder to lean on as he opened a portal to Grigori and walked through it.

* * *

**Teaser For An Upcoming Event, possibly starting next chapter.**

As Issei exited the teleportation circle at the edge of the site, he prepared himself for what was to come. He'd heard the stories about what had happened to the 'participants' of the Holy Sword Project and he knew he needed to take it down hopefully before any of the kids were killed by either the poison or Valper's men, but as he gained his bearings and figured out where exactly he was compared to the site, he heard a commotion of yelling men and running feet nearby and moved to check it out and hoped he wasn't too late.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: And that's the end of the chapter. That teaser though gives a little hint at the next big event in the timeline and I'll tell you now, it'll be a doozy. Couple things.
> 
> We'll get back to Valerie next chapter but for those that might wonder, we already have a plan in place for how this might affect the Vampire Arc.
> 
> Like I said before I started these points, the Holy Sword Project (HSP for short) will be a doozy with what it leads to within the storyline and our plans though I won't do any spoilers past that here though as I always say, you can message me here or on discord and get them if you want.
> 
> Feel free to join my discord if you want: use the code FXGCsxY to get in.
> 
> I have set up my own P-atreon for those that want to support me that way. Look up deltanz for my profile and it has the same profile picture as on here.
> 
> With those points out of the way, that's the end of the chapter and don't forget to leave reviews if you want and I'll see you next chapter.


End file.
